Science Teachers' Elicitation Practices: Insights for Formative Assessment

Enactment of Ongoing Formative Assessment: Challenges and Opportunities for Professional Development and Practice

“…With the exception of Julie (at times), teachers' use of elicitation strategies and questioning tended to be at the lowest levels, which means that they mostly focused on the verification of factual knowledge and used questioning strategies that were merely looking for students' right responses. These challenges are not different from the findings presented in other studies (e.g., Ateh, 2015; and illustrate the difficulties teachers face when enacting strategies to elicit evidence of students' nuanced thinking.…”

“…Many teachers are able to use questioning strategies to elicit student ideas, but they tend to struggle with responding and using those ideas as productive stepping-stones to move students' learning forward. Ateh (2015) examined the classroom practices of two experienced science teachers who reported using strategies to notice, elicit, and respond to students' ideas. Although both teachers used questioning strategies to elicit student responses to examine student thinking, the actual focus of their practices was on the verification of factual knowledge.…”

Investigation of an Alternatively Certified New High School Chemistry Teacher’s Assessment Literacy

“…Related literature has demonstrated that effective assessment practices, which are understood and employed by teachers as a way to inform learning and teaching, enhance student learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998Stiggins, 2008;Yin et al 2008;Vogelzanga & Admiraal, 2017). Thus, adopting these assessment practices is critical in order to monitor and support student learning and adapt teaching (Abell & Siegel, 2011;Ateh, 2015;Black & Wiliam, 2006).…”

“…Furthermore, having sophisticated understanding and practices of classroom assessment is crucial for making informed instructional decisions to support desired learning (Abell & Siegel, 2011;NRC, 2014;Mertler & Campbell, 2005). Yet, research efforts have shown that it is difficult to change teachers" traditional understanding of classroom assessment, and changing teachers" classroom assessment practices is much more difficult (Ateh, 2015;Abell & Siegel, 2011;Black & Wiliam, 2006;Herman, Osmundson, Dai, Ringstaff, & Timms, 2015;Ruiz-Primo & Furtak, 2007, Serin, 2015. Thus, it is crucial to prepare assessment literate teachers and support them during their induction years, where most teachers face difficulties to transform their knowledge into classroom practice to both assess scientific knowledge and practices at the same time, as required by the Next Generation Science Standards (NRC, 2012).…”

Testing the effectiveness of classroom formative assessment in Dutch primary mathematics education

“…Furthermore, in general these interactive techniques tend to generate an unstructured overload of information that is difficult to translate into instructional feedback for each individual student. Without specific information about students' individual difficulties, the provision of adequate instructional feedback is problematic (Ateh, 2015). It thus seems that teachers should frequently apply classroom formative assessments during the lessons that allow them to gain insight into each individual student's struggles.…”